LaBARGE — ExxonMobil announced today the completion of an expansion to the world\'s largest carbon dioxide capture plant, which will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance oil production in the United States.

\"This expansion will result in lower greenhouse gas emissions and help maximize the recovery of Wyoming\'s oil resources,\" said Randy Broiles, vice president, Americas, ExxonMobil Production Company. \"These technologies could play a significant role in the future management of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.\"

The $86 million expansion includes the installation of compressors to capture 50 percent more carbon dioxide for potential use in enhanced oil recovery and other industrial uses, ExxonMobil said in a release. Enhanced oil recovery involves the injection of carbon dioxide into reservoirs to produce additional oil and gas.

The carbon dioxide for this project is captured from the natural gas streams produced from fields in Wyoming. The gas streams contain significant amounts of carbon dioxide and other components that are removed at the LaBarge processing plant.

With the expansion, the plant has the capacity to capture approximately 365 million cubic feet per day of carbon dioxide from the gas streams — equivalent to the amount emitted by more than 1.5 million cars.

On Nov. 1 during his keynote speech at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Andy Swiger, ExxonMobil senior vice president, pointed out the need for continued development of new technologies and the importance of partnerships among oil companies globally, as well as governments. He described innovations that ExxonMobil believes can potentially turn challenges into solutions regarding energy.

Those developments include carbon capture and storage (as is practiced at the LaBarge plant), which includes the Controlled Free Zone (CFZ). The CFZ works to separate carbon dioxide and other impurities from natural gas while producing a high-pressure liquid carbon dioxide that is suitable to inject into underground storage.

“Perhaps the most underestimated avenue for achieving a high-energy, low-carbon future lies in the area of energy efficiency,” Swiger said. “By producing, delivering and consuming oil and natural gas more efficiently, we not only displace demand and extend the life of the world’s hydrocarbon endowment, but we also reduce carbon emissions.”